Belated Christmas Gift

Wow. To quote the late Jack Buck after watching the light hitting Ozzie Smith hit a walk off pennant clinching homer, "I can't believe what I just saw."

I'm sure many of you had the same type of approach to Sunday as I did...undoubtedly expecting the worst. Sure, the Birds had a decent shot to beat the 'Boys and the Texans had a better than even shot to beat the up and down Bears at home, but did anyone think the lowly Raiders would muster up the gumption (not to mention an offensive attack) to beat the Bucs in Tampa? I know I didn't and it really caused a lack of enthusiasm for Sunday's game. Then, things unbelievably started falling into place.

First, a couple local guys (Steve Slaton and Matt Schaub) and a former Eagle (Ryan Moats) combined to knock off the Bears. Then, the unthinkable happened. The Raiders came back to beat the Raiders thanks to the shocking efforts of Michael Bush who didn't play at all in 2007 and only had 4 carries for 4 yards in the prior 5 games. Frankly, I'm still shocked the Raiders won the game. It really seemed like the air went out of the stadium when Cadillac Williams blew out his knee again. (Is it me or is it amazing how many times in the past five years or so our sports' fortunes have been tied to Tampa?)

After the prerequisites had been cleared, the Birds were then faced with a de facto "play in" game with our favorite team from Texas and their cock roach, band wagon, self loathing fans. At this point, I'm still unsure what to expect. I've seen Donovan and Reid come up small in instances like this (last week being Exhibit A.) However, my buddy the Captain got me in the right mind set pretty quickly. He was basically a raving lunatic from the moment Michael Bush broke his 67 yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter of the Bucs game. He sounded like Ric Flair cutting a promo before a big match from about 3:30 pm to 7 pm when he finally calmed down. So, needless to say, I was pretty excited once the game started.

We all know what happened from there. The teams started out relatively slow in the first quarter, but for my money, the key play of game came right at the end of the first quarter. Right before the Cowboys tied the game, they had a 3rd and short at our 15, which looked like a gimme the way the 'Boys can run the ball, but instead of pounding the ball, they tried a gimmicky fake wide receiver screen, fade pass to the corner. Since the fade was covered, Romo came back to the screen to Roy Williams, which Joselio Hanson ate up for a 4 yard loss and led to a Cowboys field goal. As great as the tackle was by Hanson, I wish the game showed the DB that stayed with the fade route because he made the play of the game. Of course, the two phenomenal plays by B Dawk were huge (and he did play unbelievably), but the game was already out of reach at that point.

After the play by Hanson and the unknown DB, it was a comedy of errors by the 'Boys and sheer dominance by our Birds. Frankly, this was the second biggest win over the Cowboys in the history of the Eagles. This was basically a playoff win and we've only beaten them one other time in a playoff game...the 1980/81 NFC Championship Game. Sure, there's been several emotional wins and great moments, but the stakes were bigger for this game than any other victory over the Boys.

This game was sort of a comeuppance for Andy Reid. After the Bengals/Ravens debacles, we all wanted him gone. Somehow, someway he convinced this team to keep playing. I still think the guys is a very questionable game day coach, and his player personnel duties should absolutely be stripped, but he got this team back to the playoffs and he deserves a ton of credit. Hopefully, he keeps the same offensive philosophy this week against the Vikings.

Overall, does anyone get the feeling that things are changing in this city. We had the superb post season run by the Phils in the Fall and then things strangely fall into place for the Birds to have a "win and in" game with the Boys. Of course, the Birds roll in that game and now travel to play a team that looked pretty freakin' ordinary against the G Men's backups in a must win game. If we win that, we play a team that we dominated less than a month ago. Maybe things are finally falling our way. At this point, you have to have the feeling that anything can happen. Perhaps, this is what fans in Boston feel like?

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Other thoughts from Sunday:

-DeSean Jackson seems to be getting back to where he was earlier in the season. His stats weren't out of this world, but I think he's getting through the rookie wall.

-When you see Buck play the way he did on Sunday, does anyone else feel like punching Andy Reid in the face for not using him enough?

-The best email I received was from my buddy Tony G, who wrote "all yesterday did for me was prove that the Birds are lazy and poorly coached. This team should have finished 12-4." Amen, Tone. I agree.

-Chris Clemons....Thanks for joining us this season. Better late than never, I guess.

-We need more Brent Celek in our lives and less L.J. (which pains me to say as a Rutgers alum.)

-I read today that the Birds have only played the Vikes twice in the playoffs. They beat them both times and then preceded to play in the Super Bowl. (Maybe we are onto something here.)